Rules of Travel
by WindStar
Summary: After being chosen to compete in the upcoming World Tournament, Bryan's son decides to visit the one person that he knows can give him advice on what to do. He doesn't know if he should compete or not, and he has many questions that need answers. AU


**Windstar: **This story literally came out of thin air. While working on the last part of my series for this fandom, I felt like writing this one shot. It is loosely connected to my already present universe, but can be read just fine as an AU without any previous attachments. This story takes place nearly thirty years after the end of the first season. Seasons 2 and 3 are not observed.

**Disclaimer: **Beyblade, its affiliates, and its subsets do not belong to me. All original characters, those that do not coexist in the original Beyblade storyline, however are mine.

**Rules of Travel: **

Shane Kutznetsov looked up at the apartment building in disdain. As far as he could tell, it was neither a high class establishment nor did it maintain particularly pleasing exterior. It wasn't a dump, it did at least qualify as livable, but it wasn't something that Shane would ever live in. With all the money the occupant of this apartment had, Shane was amazed that _he _lived in it. It just didn't seem like the type of place that Dmitri Ivanov, son and heir to Tala Ivanov, would spend his time…let alone live.

It had to be right, though. Niko had given him the address over the phone, and if there was one person that could be trusted with that kind of information – it was Niko. The blonde always knew exactly where his best friend was, and Shane chalked that up to some weird gay thing. There had been rumors after all. Then again, people talked about everything, so he didn't exactly know where to put all of his trust. As far as he knew for _certain_, Niko and Dmitri just spent a lot of time together.

The fact that Dmitri moved to France of all places after he headed out on his own, probably was just a coincidence to the fact that Niko lived there all year round. Shane shook his head, none of that mattered. He didn't give a shit. He had more important things to do then worry about who was screwing who. Even if it did seem a bit odd.

He approached the door with determination, and he lifted his hand to knock on it. After his overly confident pounding, he waited patiently. Niko had said Dmitri's schedule was open at this time, so he _should _be home eating dinner. Shane hadn't wanted to wait any longer, he wanted answers to his questions and he wanted them now.

There wasn't any movement from inside the apartment, and some of Shane's courage started to wane. He took a deep breath, and lifted his hand to knock again. "No one's inside, _homme_." The French slur had Shane whipping about to blink at the man he'd come to see in the first place.

Dmitri Ivanov was perhaps the only person he knew that could still frighten him like that. It was amusing, if only for the fact that Dmitri wasn't a very threatening person, and he was, in fact, very laid back. His long red hair was hanging in his face, and despite the wind whipping around them; his bangs still covered the scars over his left eye.

Shane winced despite himself. After all these years, whenever there was a brief glimpse of it, it always brought bad feelings. Dmitri's face could be considered pleasant if it wasn't for the scarring that traced across his eye. For a while there had been talk of plastic surgery to remove it, but Dmitri had been insistent on keeping it as is. If people didn't like it – they could go to hell.

"Niko said you'd be home an hour ago." Shane accused lightly. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or say in a position like this, and he felt uncomfortable. Dmitri raised an eyebrow at him, and Shane blushed despite himself. He took a better look at the man he'd come to see.

He was wearing some decently nice clothes – not his usual sweatshirt and jeans. A guitar case hung over his shoulders and there were some sheets of music in his hand. The reason his hair was staying over his face so dutifully suddenly made sense – he was wearing hair spray. If he looked closely, he'd probably even see stage makeup. Shane groaned.

"You had a gig?" He guessed correctly, and Dmitri rolled his eyes at that.

"Yeah." The older man sighed slightly and shifted his weight a bit. "What are you doing here Kutznetsov?" He asked simply. Shane flinched at that, and he rubbed his arms uncomfortably. When he didn't answer right away, Dmitri moved onwards. "Your daddy know you're here?" He asked softly.

"No." Shane hissed, crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't need his permission for everything I do." He decided resolutely. He was fourteen already, he didn't need his dad to hold his hand as he moved through life.

A curious expression crossed Dmitri's face, and a small inkling of a smile formed on his features. He nodded good naturedly even as his hand slipped into his pocket and he flipped open a cell phone. Shane barely had enough time to realize what was happening before the redhead had punched in a speed-dial number and clicked send.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" The young boy threw himself forwards, desperate to grab the phone away from the older male. Dmitri pinched the phone to his ear with his shoulder and easily caught Shane's wrist, twisting and pulling until he had the kid locked in an arm lock behind his back. Shane winced and tried to wriggle free, and even went so far as to use some of his training to try and fight his way out.

All that did though, was make Dmitri kick out his legs and send him to the ground so he was lying on his stomach, the older man's knee pressing against his spinal chord. He winced. He should have remembered that their parents and their extended family of "uncles" had taught Dmitri personally everything he knew…and he had practiced it twice as long as Shane had.

"Screw you Dmitri!" Shane hissed in fury, but his shout of frustration was cut off by more pressure being placed on his twisted arm. Then, apparently someone had picked up on the other line, and Dmitri answered in a completely neutral and gentle tone of voice:

"Uncle Bryan? Yeah, hi, it's TJ…I think I have something that belongs to you? Let's see…short and yappy and with a chip on his shoulder. Sound familiar?"

"You're so going to die, you son of a bitch!" Shane snapped, trying to break free, but he was effectively pinned, and Dmitri didn't seem to be in the mood to let him up any time soon.

"Yeah, that was him. Hmm? Oh, no, arm bar actually. He's laid out on the street at the moment. Probably should let him up soon before someone starts thinking I'm trying to kidnap or assault a minor." The amused tone in Dmitri's voice had Shane blushing furiously, but the pressure on his arm did decrease, and soon he found he could wriggle free and stand up. "Which plane do you want him on? You'll come and get him? Probably for the best. Alright, yeah…sure…see you in a few hours. Bye." Dmitri hung up the phone and Shane glowered at him.

"You called my fucking _father_?" He hissed in frustration. The older man just shrugged nonchalantly.

"You should have known that was going to happen. If it makes you feel any better, he knew you were coming, just didn't know when you'd get here."

"_What_?" Shane winced at that and bit his lip.

"One of these days you're going to realize that Niko doesn't keep secrets for the life of him. He told everyone your plan last week, and we've all been waiting for you to just do it already."

"You've got to be kidding me." The boy groaned.

"Not really. I got the call that you went missing and cut my gig short to try to get here on time. Come on, you probably haven't eaten anything all day." He took a step towards the apartment, but Shane didn't follow.

"You didn't have to fucking call him, though." Dmitri sighed.

"You're the one that came here without telling anyone where you were going, kiddo. You should have told your daddy…"

"Quit calling him that, you sound like a damn retard." The redhead blinked at him and shrugged before opening the door and starting to step inside, closing it behind him. Shane winced as he saw his window of opportunity slip away. "Wait!" Dmitri did so dutifully. "Look…I know I should have told someone…"

"Besides Niko." The man imputed lightly, and Shane was quick to correct himself.

"I should have told my parents where I was going…but…"

"They wouldn't have paid for a trans-continental flight when a phone call could have sufficed?" Dmitri guessed correctly.

"It wasn't trans-continental." Shane groused slightly, and Dmitri rolled his eyes again.

"Kid, Russia covers two continents, Europe and Asia. You flew to France from Asiatic Russia. It _was_ trans-continental." Shane glowered in frustration, but Dmitri was unforgiving, so the kid tried again.

"I know what I did wasn't the right thing to do…I just…I really wanted to talk to you."

"Kid, you could have called."

"I know…but…I wanted to talk to you in person." Dmitri sighed, and shook his head. Stepping back he tilted his head towards the interior of his home.

"Come on. Talk." Shane took it as the invite that it was and hurried into the apartment before Dmitri had any other ideas. He quickly looked around, extremely interested in his surroundings. He hadn't seen this place before, and in truth, he wasn't exactly sure what to expect.

The home itself was obviously well cared for, and very much lived in. The front hall led out into a spacious living center turned music room. There were literally dozens of instruments, music stands, record centers, chairs, and other musical paraphernalia all across the floor and shelving systems. There was a high class stereo system in the corner that Shane remembered Dmitri getting for a Christmas present years before. It looked like it was well loved and well used.

Attached to the music room was a small kitchen that, once he'd finished dropping off his guitar and sheet music, Dmitri moved into and started to mosey around. His hands were busy opening up the fridge and pulling things out, even as his eyes were scanning the counter and cupboards for other food items. Shane watched him for a moment, before glancing up the stairs towards the rest of the apartment.

"Just a bedroom and a second bathroom up there." Dmitri told him blankly, without even turning around.

"No tour?" Shane asked dryly.

"This is the tour." Dmitri muttered, continuing to make whatever it was he was making. "You came to talk, so talk." He offered lightly. The younger male nodded, but was suddenly filled with a sense of trepidation. He wasn't sure how he wanted to approach this topic. Slowly, he moved forwards and looked around the kitchen with a bit more care.

Dmitri was busy making a couple of sandwiches and Shane's stomach growled instantly. He took a step forwards, and glanced to the left where he saw a framed photograph of Dmitri and his father, Tala. The picture was folded slightly, and it didn't quite fit into the normal sized frame. Shane had seen the same photo on Tala's desk back at the school…only in his copy – Dmitri's mother was visible.

"You really don't like her, huh?" He asked softly, more to himself then anything else. Dmitri glanced at the photo and didn't reply right away. His hands hesitated in their sandwich making process, and he shrugged slightly.

"You didn't come here to talk to me about my obvious mommy issues. What do you want, kid?"

"Niko didn't tell you?" Considering how Nikoli Hiwatari pretty much blabbed his mouth out to everyone else in a twenty country radius, it seemed unlikely that Dmitri didn't already know the reason why he'd come to visit.

"Niki doesn't do anything easy. He tells people the basics and keeps everything else to himself if he doesn't think its worth while them knowing. So to answer your question in short – _no_. He didn't tell me."

"He doesn't like being called Niki." Shane commented lightly.

"And I don't like kids coming to my home unannounced, whether I've been given forewarning or not. TK likes to think I need some excitement in my life and have a bunch of kids coming over and checking out my home, and he also seems to be under the impression that I need to talk to anyone and everyone in person. He's confident that I just need someone to talk to and all my problems will melt away. Fact is though, I really don't like it when people come over and I like talking to you brats even less when I don't have it penciled in. So get to the damn point already." Shane blinked, trying to figure out just how everything got all twisted. He couldn't help but feel ridiculously foolish at the moment, and in truth, he kind of felt like leaving and high tailing it back home before his father had to leave to get there.

"I…I was chosen for the upcoming world championship competing team." He said finally, and Dmitri shrugged. He passed Shane a plate with a sandwich on it, and picked up a soda can from the fridge door.

"Dad said something to that effect." He commented lightly as he moved passed Shane and into the music room. He sat down on one of the couches and started to eat, ignorant of everything else around him.

Shane moved forwards and frowned. He didn't feel particularly good about the fact that his whole reason for coming here seemed to not matter a bit to the man he'd come to see. He was still trying to work out what exactly Dmitri meant when he commented on his installment on the team.

Dmitri Ivanov and his father were extremely close, and always had been. Dmitri, otherwise known as TJ or Tala Junior, looked physically close enough to be his father's young clone, and they had similar dispositions. Both enjoyed winning whatever it was that they set their minds to, and both could be extremely pig headed and self-sacrificing. They didn't care much for personal harm as long as the job got done. For some reason, despite the fact that Anna Ivanov had fallen in love with her husband, married him, and birthed his children – she couldn't stand Dmitri anymore then Dmitri could stand her.

TJ had a perfectly friendly relationship with Tala, but when it came to his mother, they were always butting heads. Shane glanced back at the photo that he'd looked at earlier. It was worse then butting heads – it was downright hatred. It was so bad, that Anna never went to France to visit her son, and Dmitri only came home to Russia when she was on a business trip.

Shane could never understand why it was that they seemed to fight so much, but for whatever reason – it was just there…in the background constantly waiting. Any time that Dmitri talked about home, it was always about his father and conversations that he'd had with the man.

Anna had been the one who had gone over the logistics of the World Championships with him, and she seemed to be the one orchestrating the event. If anything, it should have been Anna to tell her son that Shane was competing…not Tala.

Dmitri didn't seem to notice or care, though, he just kept staring at Shane and wait for him to continue. "I don't know if I should compete." Shane admitted lightly, and the redhead gave him a sour look.

"So you flew to France just to ask me about it?" The redhead asked incredulously. Shane felt a wave of frustration course through him. He wasn't being fair!

"Neither you nor Niko went to the Championships, Craig didn't either."

"How do you know about Craig?" There was a hint of panic in his voice that had Shane flash back to all those rumors he'd heard before he'd left. Dmitri's blue eyes were wide with concern, and Shane tried to think of a reason that would explain it – _except _for the one that was probably the truth.

Niko was too infatuated with Dmitri's sister to possibly like the redhead like that, but Craig was another story all together. He was older then Dmitri and not even technically related. Craig was Ian's younger brother, and he was about six years older then Dmitri. He was essentially an outcast, everyone hated him at the school – but rumors started to fly around when there was only one person who _didn't _hate the youngest Papov brother.

Dmitri was the only one who enjoyed spending time with the older man, and he did spend a lot of time with him. There were rumors that Craig lived in France too. Maybe that meant that the real person Dmitri followed out to France was Craig?

"I _did _grow up in the same school as you." Shane muttered in frustration. Why was it that everyone thought he was an idiot?

"Lira, then." Dmitri guessed correctly. Kutznetsov blushed brightly. Dmitri's younger sister was the source of many rumors and tall tales. She loved telling stories and she had no sense of boundaries. Whenever there was something to talk about, she talked about it. She didn't believe secrets were meant to be kept, and so if there was a problem going around, she would speak about it without any hesitation.

That wasn't to say she didn't understand when she needed to keep her mouth shut, she just felt that certain things needed to be spoken of, and to her – peoples' love lives were meant to be spoken of. Lira had spoken about Ian's younger brother countless times, and in truth, she liked him quite a bit and was rather fond of the idea that her brother was doing another male. Shane didn't really care about that, he had other things to worry about. He pushed on without stopping.

"Kiril and Adrien didn't compete either." Kiril, Tala's younger brother turned son, was headed out on an archeological dig somewhere right now and couldn't be bothered. Adrien, Kai's eldest, was off running Hiwatari Enterprises and Shane hadn't wanted to cut through all that red tape in order to get a hold of him. That left Dmitri – the eldest of the boys who had decided not to participate in competition. "Everyone says you could have gone pro when you were even younger then me…so why didn't you?" Shane asked, eager to hear the answer he'd been looking for.

"You could have just called, kid. It really wasn't worth the flight out here." Dmitri mumbled. He glanced away from Shane and towards his music set.

"Why didn't you go pro? Why didn't you compete? You could have won for sure!"

"I didn't have a bitbeast. Kiril inherited Wolborg, remember?" Dmitri chose his words carefully, and he glanced at Shane with an appraising gaze.

"You didn't need one! I saw your videos! Dad has them in the storage room for when he's showing training tips at the school." Dmitri winced. He forgot about those.

"Everyone had a different reason for now competing, kid. Kiril honestly didn't want anything to do with beyblading. He got Wolborg because it helped him work out his headspace when he got all messed up. Adrien has asthma and that high level of competition was going to be the death of him. Niko and Jeannine were too prissy to compete like that-"

"That's not true! I saw you and Niko fight once!" Dmitri sighed heavily.

"You saw us beyblade before Ortega" He commented lightly. Shane winced. Dmitri's fingers were reaching up and lightly tracing down the scarring over his eye.

Jorge Ortega had kidnapped, tortured, and murdered as many bitbeast owners as he could find ten years ago. Niko and his twin sister, Jeannine, had been inches from death, Lira had been traumatized brutally, and Dmitri had lost his left eye in an attempt to save them.

Shane had been too young to be involved in that mess, but he knew the fallout had been brutal. He had watched as his family started to shift and change, and he had watched as beyblading became a topic of concern rather then entertainment.

"Niko doesn't compete because of Ortega?" Shane whispered softly.

"Ortega took a lout out of us, kid. Niko just couldn't take the pressure. He didn't want the spot light on him and Black Dranzer. He just wanted to be left alone. Jeannine…she didn't want anything to do with bitbeasts or beyblading after that. She was more messed up then anyone. At least Niki will kibbitz a bit with Kai or me sometimes…but when it comes down to it, he doesn't want anyone to know he blades or that he has a bitbeast. Half the world still thinks that Kai owns Dranzer and Black Dranzer still…even if that's not really the case."

"But…you quit before that, and Ortega only got to you because-" Shane cut himself off, but Dmitri answered for him.

"Because I did the hero thing, and tried to save the day. I ran in there half assed and got hurt. It's okay, kiddo, I now I messed up." He smiled softly. "I quit for a much more selfish reason then all of that."

"Which was?"

"I wanted to blade for me, not a crowd. I wanted to sing and write music and I couldn't do both. I love blading, and I'll blade with my dad, Kai, or Niki…I'll even go against your dad and Spencer, but I never wanted to do it professionally." Shane bit his lip at the soft spoken words. "Look, kid, I think you should do this." Dmitri said gently.

"What?" The boy gasped in surprise.

"Our generation…we gave up our places in competition for our own reasons, but you…you have a gift. Your daddy brags you up constantly. You have always glowed in the spotlight…so take this opportunity kid. Make us all proud. Show 'em what our parents kids can do." Dmitri grinned brightly and the boy smiled back.

"You sure its all right?" He asked carefully.

"Kid, we didn't do a blood pact to never compete in public or anything. And we're not going to disown you for kicking ass at the World Championships. Bryan wouldn't have given you Falborg if he didn't think you could handle it, especially after Ortega."

Shane blinked. He hadn't thought about that. In truth, when he his father had given him Falborg, he'd thought it had been because he hadn't trusted him to truly be able to deal with the competition without a bitbeast. He had felt like his father hadn't had faith in him, and that Falborg was the only way he was going to win.

"You're such an idiot." Dmitri muttered as he looked at the young boy. "Look, Ortega nearly tore this family apart, anyone with a bitbeast suddenly was on red alert. Bryan held out for so long, when Kiril, Adrien, Niko, Jeanie, Lira all had theirs – because he didn't want you to be in danger. He gave you Falborg because he _trusts _you to be able to handle it and everything that goes with it. He gave it to you because he knows you're going to win and make us all proud."

"But what if I lose?" Shane whispered softly.

"You won't." Dmitri said easily.

"But what if I do?"

"You wont."

"But-"

"Kid, you're not going to lose. You've been blading against Abbey raised prodigies and their kith and kin your whole life. You're not going to lose against the rest of the people out there. You really are underestimating yourself and overestimating them."

"But-"

"If you lose, then you figure out why you lost, and work at it the next time. You'll train twice as hard and you'll show the world why you're the best a different day. We're not going to disown you or kick you out. You're family, kid."

"I'm not a kid anymore." Shane muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. Dmitri looked at him for a moment, before smiling brightly.

"Yeah, you're right. You're not a kid anymore. You're just a whining brat who runs away from home to get encouraged by his much more awesome cousin." Dmitri grinned and ruffled the kid's hair. Shane scowled at him, but the older male couldn't bring himself to care.

They didn't talk much for the rest of the evening. Dmitri got out some of his music and played for a while, and Shane listened – amazed that so much talent could run in his family. His father was an expert blader and hacker, his mother was a computer revolutionary, his brother was a talented archeologist, and his sister was gorgeous and considering going into acting. Dmitri's talent in music was perhaps the most amazing feat of all though, and he was looking at a promising career in the future.

When the knock came at the door near midnight, alerting the occupants that someone was outside, Dmitri stood up and easily travelled towards the structure. He opened it up, and cheerily welcomed Bryan inside. Kai was with him, and Nikoli was standing at his father's side.

"Hey TK, what are you doing up so late? It's a school night!" Dmitri laughed, clasping hands with the younger man. Shane watched them with wide eyes. It had been so long since both of them were back at the school. They had become somewhat of a legend over the years, and watching them together was always interesting.

"You kidding? I've been crawling up the walls _begging _to get out since I heard Shane flew the coop. Took you for freaking ever man!" Nikoli Hiwatari announced as he turned towards the youngest Kutznetsov. Shane scowled, and opened his mouth to reply, but Niko soared passed him and towards the guitar Dmitri had been carrying earlier. "This the new one? Damn, she looks nice. How much was she?"

"Over two grand, spent my whole damn pay check on her." Dmitri said, but there was a huge grin on his face.

"You planning on eating this month?" Niko questioned evenly, tilting his head back at his best friend.

"At your house, yeah!" Shane blinked at them for a moment, before turning towards his father and Kai. The both of them looked mildly irritated, but not as bad as he had imagined.

"Hey dad…" Shane murmured softly.

"The only reason you're not getting beat right now, is because Kai here talked me out of it. But just so you know, you are _grounded _until the tournament. Got it?" Bryan hissed darkly, but Shane just nodded his head. He understood completely.

"Thanks Uncle Kai…" He murmured.

"Next time, just ask. One of us would have helped you out, alright?" Kai told him evenly. "It wasn't that you came to see Dmitri, none of us would have minded that…and hell…we have enough money to spend on your ticket. What got everyone mad was that you just up and left without telling anyone. We all knew where you were going, but if we didn't, we would have been real worried. Next time – just ask!"

"You would have let me come?" He asked dumbly. Bryan rolled his eyes.

"Hell, the amount of times Dmitri and Niko spent flying across the damn world to hang out, you think we would have denied you a visit too?" Shane whipped around to look at where Niko was flipping through Dmitri's record collection.

"Huh?" He questioned.

"Niko used to run away all the time, and fly up to the school." Kai explained. "Eventually we just bought the tickets and helped him go, because that's much _safer _then just letting him run away and work it out on his own." Shane blinked in amazement. It wasn't Kai who had talked his father down, it had been Niko. Niko had convinced both his father and Bryan that he had really needed to do this, and that he just needed to be taught the rules of travel before it was okay.

Shane grinned, and Nikoli glanced up and winked at him. "Trust me, I was a rebel in my day." He announced happily.

"You're still a God-damn rebel." Dmitri groused lightly, whacking the back of the kid's head. He just grinned in response.

Shane looked back at his father. "You made up your mind yet on what you're doing?" Bryan asked evenly. Shane smiled.

"I'm gonna do it." He announced, and Bryan nodded his head.

"Good, because you don't get a break for the rest of the damn year. This is your last flight of fancy, from now on – your ass is mine to kick as hard as I want to…and it's going to be _hard_." Shane nodded again.

"Yes, sir."

"Thank your cousins, we're leaving." Bryan decided evenly, and Shane turned to look at Dmitri.

"Thank you, TJ…for everything." He said sincerely. Dmitri just nodded.

"Sure thing. See you at the tournament." The redhead promised lightly. He moved over, his left arm nudging a music stand slightly and almost knocking it to the ground. Niko expertly grabbed it and spun it about, breaking in before any tension could settle.

"This new? Haven't seen it before."

"It's been there for years." Dmitri muttered, glowering at the stand in his friend's hands. No one wanted to comment that he hadn't seen the stand there, and that his blinded eye had once again brought about a poor situation. Instead, Shane met him half way and gave him a hesitant hug that Dmitri freely returned. "See you around kid."

The boy nodded and waved goodbye to Niko who seemed content on hanging out in Dmitri's apartment. Kai and Bryan walked out the door with a few exchanged hugs and handshakes and spoken farewells. Then, the three headed out to the car and travelled to the airstrip.

"Dmitri doesn't blade anymore because of his eye, right?" Shane whispered softly. Kai and Bryan exchanged glances before replying.

"TJ wanted to wait until he was sixteen, start up the same year that we all ended. He wanted to make sure that he was just as good, if not better then we all were. It was a difficult road because he refused to use a bitbeast, even when we did find one that he could use. After Ortega…when he lost his eye he couldn't keep blading at that level. He couldn't see the blade coming around and he couldn't keep up with the reflexes he needed to compete against a bitbeast without one. He withdrew his name from competition. He hasn't really bladed since." Bryan explained lightly. "Shane…TJ was the one who nominated you for the team this year. He said he thinks you're ready…and he's right. You are ready. You're going to do extremely well."

"_He _nominated me?" Shane questioned, wide eyed.

"Yeah, kiddo, he did. He really believes in you." Shane stared up at Kai for a long while before nodding his head. He could handle that.

Seven months later, as he stood out in the arena against his final competitor, he grinned. Just behind his opponent's left shoulder, was Dmitri Ivanov. Craig Papov was at his side, and there was a beautiful blonde woman on his right. Dmitri's arm was around her waist and ever so often he would lean towards her and kiss her cheek.

Seemed like those rumors weren't very accurate after all. Nikoli and Lira were next to Dmitri's lady-love, Adrien and Kiril were there too, and all of them were cheering him on. He grinned brightly, and closed his eyes. When he opened them, the world had faded and the only thing before him was his opponent.

He beat him before he had even realized there was a match to be won. Everything had disappeared into a comfortable routine of attack, block, and defend. He had done what he had trained to do – win and be good at it.

Standing up on that podium, receiving his trophy, Shane turned to look at Dmitri and gave him a bright smile. From this far away, he couldn't hear what the other man was saying, but he could read the redhead's lips.

"_Told you, you wouldn't lose!" _Dmitri had said. Shane just grinned, and held up the trophy. It was the first time that anyone from the "second generation" had competed in the tournament, and he'd won the title for them all. It felt refreshing, good, and just plain amazing.

"We did it!" He told his family of cousins and friends. They just rolled their eyes.

"Of course." To them, there had never been a doubt. Shane didn't care though, it didn't matter. He got the answers he was looking for, and this time…he knew that he didn't need to have a transcontinental flight to figure them out. A phone call would do just as well…because they'd always be there…no matter what.


End file.
